1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector and particularly to an electrical connector having a pin holding member which secures terminal pins in position and protects the terminal pins against deformation when mounting the connector to a circuit board thereby facilitating assembly.
2. The Prior Art
Electrical connectors having a plurality of rows of terminal pins are now widely used. To minimize the size of the connectors, the terminal pins of the connectors are usually densely arranged whereby inadvertent contact between adjacent pins frequently occurs. To overcome such a problem, a pin holding member is provided which effectively retains the pins in position and spaces the pins from each other. Usually, the terminal pins of the connector are formed to have an L shape, with a horizontal section received in an associated channel defined in the connector and a vertical section extending from the horizontal section to engage with a the circuit board on which the connector is mounted. A portion of the horizontal section is exposed outside the channel from which the vertical section extends. Conventionally, the pin holding member is arranged to retain and prevent the vertical sections of the terminal pins from contacting each other.
However, for a connector having a plurality of aligned and stacked rows of terminal pins, the exposed portions of the horizontal sections of the terminal pins of the upper rows are usually longer than those of the lower rows in order to provide a space for accommodating the lower rows. The longer the exposed portion of the horizontal section of the terminal pin, the greater the chances of deformation resulting when mounting the connector to the circuit board since a vertical force is usually exerted on the exposed portions. The adverse effects of such an assembly technique may not be overcome by the conventional pin holding member.
Thus, it is desirable to have an electrical connector structure incorporating therein a pin holding device which overcomes the problem discussed above.